A Good Night's Sleep and other stuff

I realize that most of you parents out there do not celebrate a single night of sleep, but it is pretty much a party at our house. To wake up at 6:30am and realize that you have not been awakened to cries, coughs or voices for 8 solid hours is just short of a miracle. Since we are teething and have a little cold, I know the cause of the poor sleep, but it still does not make it any easier. Last night was AWESOME!

I haven't done an update on what she is doing lately for a while so that is next. First off, I am not certain many times that Olivia actually exists, for what I mainly see is a blur. She absolutely never stops moving!

• Lots and lots of words, new ones every day, and when she doesn't know the word, it is "dis" or "dat". Holding a blanket saying "my dis" or pointing at my shirt saying "mommies dat".
  
• Sentences too, the favorite still being "I wan juice" or "I wan tati" ( post your guess in the comments)
• She loves, loves, loves playing with other kids. Christmas was awesome because she was constantly occupied chasing the big kids around.
  
• She has begun practicing for her career as a stunt person. She spent 15 or so minutes last week falling down, getting up and falling down again, laughing all the while. Last night, again, except with the addition of singing and her stool. Specifically, she would stand atop the stool, look at me and sing a few unrecognizable bars, then "fall" off (or jump off) and land on the floor, laugh hysterically (me and her), repeat, again or "gen" as she would say.
• She walks all the way up the flight of steps just like you or I, stepping over to the next step. It is amazing to watch those little legs take such big steps. She even did it carrying two Christmas presents up from the basement. Such a big girl.
• She is just under 36 inches tall and around 30 pounds. Not eating much the last few days, but it could be the teething and runny nose.
• She loves Big Bird and now has two Big Bird movies and one stuffed BB. That, her doll that she got for her birthday and her bodiless frog are her three best friends. They ride in the stroller, eat and generally hang out with her most of the time. But, the baby does not get to go to bed with her - it has this nasty habit of crying or laughing, so it sleeps where ever it was last played with.
• Play-doh is another favorite toy - she is especially fond of shredding it.
• She is starting a Kindermusic class next week - it will be our first class. I am sure there will be more info on that to come.
• She loves a bath and plays like crazy in the tub. At some point in time she will roll onto her tummy kick her legs and blow bubbles. She will also color or put water from one container into another - last night it was from a tiny empty bubble bottle into a mesh bag. It looked as if it was going to take a really long time to fill it up!
• After she gets out of the tub and wraps up in her dog towel, she MUST go show Daddy herself all wrapped up looking cute in the towel.
  
• When she does not want me to sing or say something, she will put her hand over my mouth and tell me "no" or "top it".
• Speaking of me singing - her favorite is "If your happy and you know it..." except that I add the verse of "If you are happy and you know it, kiss your Mommy (or Daddy)" which she does with excessive glee and requests of "gen" "gen" when the song is over.
  
• She always takes some time to warm up in new (even familiar new, like Grandma's house) situations. She will initially be a bit clingy and not want to interact with others for a few minutes.
• A favorite "game" is if Daddy gets her from her room in the morning, she will run to get in bed with me, in Daddy's spot, the yell for Daddy to come and lie down too.
  
• Speaking of yelling, Olivia is LOUD. Several of our friends who have visited recently (and also have small children) have commented that she is louder than your average child.
• Much to my chagrin, she wants the tv on all the time. She doesn't really watch it unless it is one of her shows, but she likes to have it in the background.
• She still loves to do whatever we are doing - cooking, cleaning - she always wants to help saying "I hep mommy".
  
• This morning there was a piece of cereal that got dropped on the floor. I asked Olivia to pick it up and put it in the trash. She tried, but it had been stepped on, so it was crushed. So, she went to the pantry, got the dust broom and dustpan and proceeded to "sweep" it up, then emptied the empty dust broom in the trash. All without a word to or from me, except "I sweep it mommy".
  
• All colors are blue or "boo" when asked "what color is this?" but if I ask her for a specific color like "which one is red" she knows it. She has really wanted to work on learning colors a lot lately, so I think she will get it pretty soon.
• She still LOVES music. It is extremely rare that we can take a trip in the car without one of her music CD's on. Fortunately, we have a wide variety of children's music, including soul, zydeco, world, folk and rock. Have you heard 7 8 9 by the Barenaked Ladies it is so funny:

I am sure there is more....