What an amazing treat Olivia Rae is. This sweet girl is such a light! I cannot sum up who exactly this ball of fire is, but I have always LOVED age TWO, because you get to start seeing more and more of who your children are becoming. Personalities begin to blossom, and all of those thoughts that have been running around in their sweet heads begin to take shape through their developing vocabulary. Liv is just awesome. I begged Jesus tonight as I prayed over her to use her tenacious spirit to further His Kingdom in fantastic ways, because this girl's personality is HUGE and such a reflection of the vibrancy of our God.
This post will be a little different from Lizzie and Lainie's, just because of Liv's age. I am going to highlight just a few of her favorite things.
Favorites:
"My doats" (goats) Penny is Olivia's goat, and she is passionate about everyone knowing it! We have begun spelling things out and using code words if the big girls are going to work with the goats without Liv, because she is absolutely heartbroken to miss an opportunity to see her "babies" at the barn.
"Hashews" (cashews) Now this one was a bit tricky. I mistook this for "house shoes", and seriously disappointed Liv when I provided cute house shoes per her request. She looked at me, said "No Mommy!", and then thought for a good while before she finally said, "I need my hashew nack!" OH! Well done Liv! Two year old translation should totally be a game show. Yes, you may have some cashews for a snack!
"My Pink Lubby, My Lamb Lubby, My Paw-Paw Lubby, Red, Orange, Ruff-Ruff, My Sheep Pillow, My Bankets, My Blue Car, My Jesus Book, My Pincess Cars, Ice Water" So, yeah, we have a hoarder on our hands. These are all of the items that go to bed with our little lady. I really am not sure how we got to this point, but she sleeps amazingly and plays happily in bed for a long time after she wakes up in the morning and from naps. Therefore, I ask, "Do you want anything else?" We will deal with lifelong issues later...
"Mums" (Gum/Candy) This began over the summer when we road tripped, and I had Mentos gum as a special treat for the big girls. Liv had regular Mentos as her treat or "mum" as she called it. Now, all candy is "mum" even though she can very articulately tell you what each type of candy is. She currently has decided that she is interested in the potty, so she gets "3 mums!" when she is successful. I am a believer that we are all in this potty training thing together, so we all get 3 mums (M&Ms or chocolate chips, or marshmallows, or whatever we have on hand) to celebrate!
"Daddy's Truck/My Truck" Olivia cannot get enough of her Daddy, and she especially loves to GO anywhere with him in the truck. She thinks she is big stuff when she climbs in all by herself. When Liv hears the front door of our house open, she yells, "Daddy's Home!!! Go bye-bye?" There is a fervor in this little lady to go and do and explore, and she knows that with her Daddy is the best place to do that:)
"Fox says on Daddy's I-pad" Like so many, Liv has latched onto this video, and she requests it nightly before bed. She can sing a lot of the song, and it is so funny to hear her sing "hattie-hattie-hattie-ho!"
"My Jesus Book" (Big Picture Story Bible) It is delightful to see Liv drawn to this book and the stories in it. She requests to read it often and likes to have it in her bed to look at when she wakes up. On a side note, we have found that 3 sets of little Bassett hands is about the life cycle of books in our home. Both this book and our copy of The Jesus Storybook Bible along with countless others have been through lots of surgery with packing tape in the past several months.
"PawPaw" My Daddy is awesome and has always drawn in my girls with his crazy antics. However, none have attached themselves so adamantly to PawPaw as Olivia. She cannot get enough of him, and truth be told, he is kinda crazy about her too:)
"My Boops" (Boots) There have been a couple of pair of boots in the rotation, but outside of her "parkle shoes", you would be hard pressed to find her in another pair of shoes. Her pink cowgirl ones became her faves after the Stock Show, and that "I do it!" attitude taught herself how to get them on all by herself. (Although there were a few painful weeks of fits and frustration regarding these boots and socks, I now can say, "Go put your shoes on," and she can actually do it! This is Mommy Success!!!!)
"Happy Snowman!" Frozen has swept through our house with fury! Even though Liv and I haven't actually seen the movie, there is plenty out there on YouTube to make us feel as though we have. Liv's favorite is the song, "In Summer", and she claims that every snowman she sees is a "Happy Snowman". She even sings "Happy Snowman to You" in lieu of "Happy Birthday" in most cases.
"Jesus loves me!" Yes, melt my heart, but let me just set this one up. We don't do Santa (gasp!), but at Christmas, our girls are often asked, "Is Santa coming to see you?" or "Did Santa Clause come to your house?" Lizzie and Lainie have their answers somewhat figured out for these situations, but for Liv, I just kind of skirt the issue and point to our celebration of Jesus. Well, Christmas night as we were tucking Olivia in, she asked, "When Santa is coming to my house?" We all looked at one another and laughed a bit, and then assured her that Santa wasn't coming to our house because he wasn't real. She said, "Oh good! Santa Scare me!" Then, she went straight to this... "Jesus scare me? Jesus come to my house?" Oh, precious love! We went into fervent explanation of JESUS'S VERY REAL LOVE FOR OLIVIA and the TRUTH that HE IS ALWAYS WITH US. We were so blown away at how quickly children associate Santa and Jesus with one another based on culture. Liv still will say, "Santa scare me, but Jesus LOVES me. When Jesus come to my house?" She has plans for when he comes. They will sing, dance and eat and play together. Wouldn't that be awesome? Someday, sweet girl, our great hope is that you will be welcomed into HIS house where singing, dancing, feasting, and so much more will be experienced... Yes, Jesus does love you, Olivia Rae! Keep singing those words!
Other favorites include: dance, sparkle, Kyleigh, wagon, diffuser, outside, brush teeth, pig tails, pjs, Ms. Keri, CC friends, snacks, shopping, Powerade, Chips and Queso, accessories, hugs, kisses, eggs, BOOKS, being sneaky, baths, jumping, laughing, cleaning, being BIG.
I love this girl so much! She adds so much to our family and brings fullness to my days. Life with Liv is precious.
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