Olivia at six years

I was honestly going to stop doing these yearly updates for Olivia after she turned five, but it’s so fun to look back on.

So here we go with another year.

Stats

Olivia is 57 lbs and 4 feet tall. She gained 8 lbs and grew 3 inches this year. She’s in the 93rd percentile for weight and 89th percentile for height. She’s in size 8-10 clothes, and size 12 shoes.

Physical milestones

Olivia is now riding her bike without training wheels. She learned one evening with Chris and it took about 20 minutes before she was racing around on her bike like a maniac like she’s been doing it forever.

She recently started swimming lessons since she was showing some fear of the water. She was good in our pool but didn’t like putting her face in the water. Swimming lessons have gotten her so much more comfortable with the water and she goes underwater like it’s nothing now.

As far as dressing, she has a little trouble with the zippers on her jacket but overall is a rockstar getting herself ready. She’s been practicing her buttoning and does great. She can get herself completely ready in the morning and for bed at night, which is such a help when I need to focus on her sister. Girlfriend can get so distracted, however, so she sometimes needs some cues from us. In the evening, I’m convinced this is a stall tactic. She definitely has opinions now on what she wears, and it’s hard to get her to wear a dress. I basically let her just dress herself and pick out her own clothes and everyone is happy.

Olivia helps set and clear the table, puts a new garbage bag in the trash, dusts, washes mirrors and windows, helps with laundry, and loves helping Chris with yardwork outside.

She’s gotten quite good at drawing and her printing is pretty impressive for her age. She loves to copy down words out of books or as I spell them for her.

Language/Reading

This kid is obsessed with the Spanish language. She has a neighbor friend who is a native Spanish speaker and has Spanish class in school. She’s always trying to speak Spanish with me and wants to learn new words.

She can count to 100 with my help at the 20, 30, 40 mark, and loves to print her name “Olivia K” since there’s another Olivia in her class. She’s still struggling with saying her Fs and Vs but if I ask her to slow down, she can focus on saying them correctly.

She still loves to be read to and can even say some of the words. She loves her Highlights Hello magazines. They’ve introduced her to actually sounding out some words at school. She always wants to practice her words at home but gets frustrated when she can’t figure out what the word is.

Health

Olivia caught a stomach bug from her sister back this summer but has been pretty healthy otherwise. We’ve had to give her Dramamine for car trips 30 minutes or more otherwise she feels car sick. But luckily the meds work great.

She did have a period of migraines and I wonder if they are coming in clusters. We met with the neuologist who said she is probably underdosed in her migraine medication, but since it seems to help, we can continue on the same dose.

It’s hard to tell sometimes if these are true migraines, a headache, or just her making it up. But she went through a period over the summer where they were happening 1-2 times a week after they had been gone for 6-8 months. But after meeting with the neurologist, they seemed to have abated. But with all these episodes she’s also gotten a lot better about taking the medication. I’ve noticed she definitely has anxiety, especially over her migraines, or if she thinks she’s going to throw up. I hate to think she picked that up from me, but it very well could be the case.

Eating

She’s a good eater. At her well-child check, her provider asked her what her favorite meal was and she said shrimp fettuccine alfredo, and the provider said she didn’t need to ask any more about food and concluded from Olivia’s favorite food alone that she was a good eater.

Olivia’s so polite too. If she doesn’t like something, she won’t come out and say it. She’ll pick at it and remark about it, but won’t say she doesn’t like it. But overall, she’s still a really good eater. Her favorite foods are fruits, all forms of berries, tacos, pizza, shrimp alfredo, spaghetti and meatballs, McDonalds Happy Meals, Jimmy Johns, cereal, oatmeal, PB&Js, yogurt, and Booty Popcorn (Pirates Booty).

She also loves “Bubly” which is flavored sparkling water no matter what the brand. She gets to have one for Friday family nights, but loves to ask several times throughout the week for Bublys.

Sleep

Olivia goes to bed between 7:30 and 8 and loves staying up a little bit later on Friday nights with us. She’s still an early riser, getting up around 6:30. At least she knows to play in her room until 7 when her OK To Wake clock lights up.

Her evening routine goes pretty well overall but she definitely likes to stall. She gets her PJs on, teeth brushed and flossed, and sits with Chris to read a Highlights magazine while I’m putting Emelia to bed. Then she gets in bed, we turn her nightlights on, pray, and give several hugs and kisses.

She still asks me if we’ll come to check on her and stand at her door. I don’t stand at the door, but she picked this up from when she was having a sleep regression and throwing a tantrum and I told her I would stand at her door if she laid down and went to sleep, otherwise I’d leave.

She has had these sleep regressions twice in the last year, and it’s what I’m assuming is going on with her since it comes out of nowhere and doesn’t seem to have anything else going on. But I have to resort to very strict measures to get it under control otherwise she will literally scream and cry and throw a tantrum. It seemed to help the most to be very firm, lay down the expectations, and yes, say I will stand outside her door for a few minutes as long as she stays in her room and doesn’t shout for me. But now, her saying that is just a habit. She doesn’t react to the fact that I never actually do it anymore.

She loves when I put the magnesium butter on her legs and sometimes she’ll get lavender to put on her feet so that’s another thing that can calm her and get her ready to sleep. She’s always fallen asleep really quickly, which is nice.

Favorites

Toys: Her Disney dolls, Legos, Polly Pockets, and PJ Masks characters

Books: Highlights Hello magazines, Pig the Pug, Max the Magician

TV shows/Movies: Pj Masks, Storybots, Ice Age, Raya, Frozen

Activities: Coloring, art activities, watching TV, playing PBS Kids on the tablet, going to the park, walking by the river, riding her bike, swimming lessons, dancing, painting, playing at her desk in her room.

She loves being outside, riding her bike, playing with her neighbor friends, or going on walks. She just loves nature, especially when she can find little friends of the non-human variety.

Big sister

Olivia loves playing with her sister (until of course she doesn’t and then her sister is annoying). She loves to help out with Emelia, helping her into the high chair, pushing her up to the table, and is a good sports at letting Emelia play with her toys. They’ve really started interacting with each other so much more and playing imaginative games together. “Mom, I’m the babysitter,” she’ll tell me.

She’s just such a big help with Emelia. She’s always had such a kind heart, and while they may fight at times, she’s so accommodating with her sister. It’s funny, because they just love to share each other’s toys.

Birthday

Since both girls had a combined birthday party this year again, we just had my parents over on her actual birthday for pizza and cake.

• 

• 

• 

I made her a star blanket that she got to come home from school to and she loved it. (She’s still wearing her mask in the picture).

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

She loved her Frozen suitcase, dreamcatcher, new clothes for her Build-A-Bear kitty, and a few others little toys. I got them all through a kids’ consignment sale, thank you very much. They’ll all have a good new home here.