Dear Olivia,

The time has come. No more binkys. I've been wrestling with the idea of removing the binky for a while now. You just seem too old to have one. Plus you started waking up every time it fell out of your mouth in the middle of the night. But part of me didn't want to take it away. You love the binky. You get so excited when you see it! And it makes night times/nap times so much easier. Plus with the binky gone that means you are officially a big girl! :( It made the fact that your growing up all too real! Yesterday, at nap time, was the last time you got the binky. Last night you did okay falling asleep. You cried for 40 minutes and then were out. Today is a different story. You've been in bed 40 minutes and your still crying. I figured nap times would be the hardest! Night times you are tired enough to give up. Nap times, not so much. I'm not looking forward to a no nap Olivia today! :(

You have started to pick on Bently. It's hilarious. After all this time of him picking on you, you finally can get him back. You constantly are sitting on him or climbing on him or hanging from his neck. You steal his food and his drinks at dinner. I'm already starting to feel the exhaustion from breaking up fights! ;) But as much as you guys bicker, you get along too. You guys have started to play more and more together and it's pretty fantastic!

You recently have started to become more of a mommy's girl. Don't get me wrong I'm stoked. I spent a year of you being all about dad. But sometimes it is exhausting. You constantly want to be held. Or played with. You call out my name over and over. "mommy! Mommy! Mommy!" Until I look at you or pick you up. Is as cute as it is annoying! ;)

Your vocabulary just keeps getting bigger and bigger! You are constantly saying new things that surprise me! You've also started putting two words together. Mostly hi and bye or Night night! You'll say "bye Dad!" Or "Hi Mom!" or "Night night Brother!" You call Bently Brother more than Bently. Which is a real shame because you say Bently so dang cute!

You're doing okay in nursery. I swear every week it gets harder instead of easier. You cling to me now and start to cry as soon as we're in the room! But usually after I leave you calm down in about 2 minutes flat. So it's not horrible. I just hate leaving when you're crying and yelling Mommy at me! It breaks my heart every single time!

You have semi started trying to sing. You sing the go part of let it go. You sing the "and me" part of Jake and the Neverland Pirates theme song. You sing Scout of the "I'm with you scout" theme song. Apparently we're letting you watch too much tv! Ops!

I love you beautiful girl! I hope you always know I love you so stinking much. You're smiles and giggles always brighten up our home!

Love,
Mom

Dear Olivia,

I have been such a slacker with writing you. The problem is your Dad works graveyards, so he sleeps in the bedroom during the day when I could use the computer and your brother is usually asleep in my bed at night. So there is no time for me to just sit and type. Even currently I'm typing away while your brother sleeps, praying he doesn't wake up!

Let's catch up shall we? Christmas was amazing! I kept accidentally calling it your first Christmas! It just felt like your first! Last year you were only 5 months old! This year everything was new and exciting! From watching you hang ornaments to looking at Christmas lights, everything was magical! Though Christmas was a little hectic this year. See we moved from Bountiful to Vernal the 5th of December! It was crazy and fast and all the sudden we were here and it was Christmas! Your Dad and I had presents arriving in the mail Christmas Eve! We were just so busy! Luckily before we left we were able to go to Layton park and look at the lights. It was amazing! Spending time with our little family is my favorite thing to do! You lit up and pointed at all the lights. You were so enthralled by them! We got out and walked the park this year because it wasn't so cold. You looked adorable all bundled up running around looking at lights. You kept trying to go under the railing to get to the lights! You also enjoyed dancing to the Christmas music in the park. There were a couple times we had to stop and wait because you refused to stop dancing! It was stinking adorable!

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day we were both sick. We had a pretty nasty cold. You were in the beginning stages of having it, so you weren't so bad, but I was miserable! Christmas morning was so magical! Having both my cute kids walk down the stairs was my favorite moment! We opened stockings first and you did awesome at unwrapping those presents! The only problem was is you were hungry and you found cookies! After you had the cookies you could care less about opening presents! Eventually the cookies ran out and you opened presents! We got you a tunnel and you loved it! You began to giggle and shreek the minute we set it up for you! I love watching you be so excited!

I think that sums up Christmas. I was going to write more but I'm going to write you an 18 month letter on our family blog so you'll just have to check for that for other updates. Oh but one more thing before you go...

Your Dad works Sundays, which I means I brave church all by myself. It can be quite a daunting task! By the time sacrament is over I'm usually ready to be done. So as much as I love having my tag along with me when I go to Sunday School and Relief Society, I was excited for nursery! I had subbed in nursery a couple weeks so I was hoping the transition would be a little smoother. Today I walked out of sacrament and took you to nursery. I put you down and you ran off to play with out a care. I knew you expected me to stay. I read once you shouldn't sneak out so I said, "Good bye Olivia!" Boy did that get your attention. You immediately turned around and began to walk after me, whimpering the whole way. I shut the door and immediately looked through the peep hole to see how you were. You were crying and reaching at the door. I wanted to rush in and save you from the horrible nursery leader ;) but I waited like a good mom. Within a minute you were distracted playing with toys! I couldn't believe it! My big girl was in nursery. After waiting and waiting for this day to arrive it had. And then, I was sad! You are getting so big!

I love you!

Mom

Dear Olivia,

Sorry there has been quite the absence in my letter writing. We moved. Yup to Vernal. It's been quite the adventure but you've handled it pretty well. Well actually you've been pretty cranky but I think that's because your teething and miserable. You also have a horrible cough. It's been no fun for you! I am actually doing this on my phone due to an Internet issue. So I'm going to make this fast

You are obsessed with growling. You growl all the time. You'll just walk around the house growling at nothing. It's actually pretty adorable! 

You have started to actually try and repeat words. Before you would just look at us when we would tell you to say something. But now, you actually repeat it. And you're getting pretty good. You can now say Bently instead of brother. Though you mostly just call him brother. You'll say baby when asked and shoes. I'm so excited to see you start talking more and more!!! 

We set up the Christmas tree and you were entranced with putting the ornaments on. It was adorable until the obsession didn't end. You won't leave the dang tree alone. I tried putting the ornaments higher but our tree is pretty short so you can still reach the majority of them. You also are pretty good at getting your brother involved in the action. Today you guys worked as a team and pulled the whole tree down. I was not a happy mama. 

You guys were not upset at all. You thought it was pretty neat. 

With this move it means I get to be a stay at home mom which has been so fun! Lucky for us the weather has been incredible and we've spent some fun time at the park! :) you love the park and have no fear which scares me. :) you climb and climb and go down those big slides! It makes me so proud! :) 

You are at the funnest stage my darling. You run around the house non stop causing trouble and smiling the whole time you do! Speaking of smiling, you have started to smile when I get the camera out. That is very nice. 

I love you so much darling. I'm going I have to better at taking video so you can see exactly how adorable you are! 

I love you!

Mom

Dear Olivia,

Today in church you were walking around the room in Sunday school. Well we started to pray and you stopped and began looking around at everyone folding their arms. You then folded you little baby arms. It was adorable. You've been folding your hands but this is the first time you folded your arms. It was dang adorable. 

Today it was the first snow. First you just stood in the doorway and watched the snow, mesmerized. Eventually you walked out into it. You loved it. You giggled and laughed and ran around in it. It was all going well till Bently pushed you. Then it went downhill. ;) 

I would like to make note that you wake up from naps and sleeping cranky. I mean extremely cranky. Like can't put you down because you cry cranky. This was today.  

Notice your crazy curly hair? I love it!

 For a good forty five minutes you cri d. Finally I knew we had to leave and I set you on the table to get your shoes on. I walked away to grab them and when I came back you were eating pancakes that were on the table from that morning. I guess you were hungry. ;)

I love you beautiful! You are getting so big I can hardly believe it. I'm going to make a quick list of all the words you say. 

Mama

Dads

Hi

Dog

Duck

Brother

Bently

Baby

Elmo 

Grandma 

Papa 

Love 

Mom 

Dear Olivia,

Guess what? You decided to stop nursing. You just stopped asking for it. I don't know if you just became frustrated because there wasn't much coming out anymore or what. But you're done. We haven't nursed in days. The funny part is I was like, that happened so fast! Haha! I miss it a little bit now! I guess it just goes to show you better appreciate what you have! :)

You are such a little trooper when it comes to doing your hair! I sit you on the counter and mostly you just sit there and let me do it! It's amazing and I am so grateful for it! I really wanted bows to put in your hair so I spent 21 dollars on stupid bows! I only got like 10 or so for that much money! It was ridiculous! But luckily they look so cute on you! Now you don't touch them unless you are tired or in your car seat. I think you get bored in the car so you play with your hair and that's when you find your bows. I forgot one time to take your bow out when I put you in the carseat and you didn't touch it. So I got confident and didn't take it out for a second trip. You lost the bow. The weird part is I have looked all over around your carseat and cannot find your bow! Your carseat has ate 2 bows! They are seriously gone! I am more than a little frustrated and angry about the money your carseat just ate! ;)

I had a quiet morning alone with you this morning! Dad was at the doctors and Benlty was at preschool. We snuggled and played and I chased you around the house. There was a little of tickling involved and lot of giggling! :) I loved every minute of that hour and half we got together! :) I wish you could remember these moments! But I guess that's why I write them down for you!

Love,
Mom

Dear Olivia,

You my friend are getting so big! You walk like a champ. It's been so fun to see you improve! You are pretty much pro now! I was so worried about having two mobile kids but actually it's made life easier! You and Bently get along so much better now that you can follow him around, and more importantly, run away! ;) Seriously the relationship between you two is adorable! I'm planning on writing a letter to both of you on that subject! :)

Now lets talk about breast feeding. I love breastfeeding, I do. But I was never one that wanted to breastfeed after a year. Bently stopped at exactly 11 months and I was just fine with that. You however, are more than happy to still be breastfeeding. Honestly I shouldn't complain, because it could be a lot worse. We only breastfeed once a day in the morning. But that's not really your choice. I think if it was up to you we would breastfeed every two hours like a newborn! (Okay maybe I'm over exaggerating!) You love to breastfeed though. You see me start to get ready and you start laughing and smiling up a storm. You love it! And it's pretty adorable. I'm planning on breastfeeding you as long as you want now. As long as we keep it to once a day, K?

You have a new obsession with books. You love them! The problem is, you are not very gentle! The main draw is turning the pages. You have destroyed 2 board books and 2 paperback books in the past 2 weeks. I want to put the books up, but at the same time I love that you and Bently have access to them! I want you to love reading! I want you to always have books around and in your life. Lately you have us read "Brown Bear Brown Bear" or "Bear Hunt" over and over and over again! Every animal you point out and scream "dog dog!" Every animal you see lately is a dog! It's adorable how excited you get over seeing dogs! :)

Other than that I am just enjoying being your mom! I love making you giggle! It is the most adorable sound in the world! It makes me smile every single day!

Love,
Mom

Dear Olivia and Bently,

I forgot to mention one of the funny things that happened while we were trick or treating! We got to the house and Bently loved to knock! Livvy near the end got in on the knocking too! ;) Well Bently knocked and the door swung open. I guess it hadn't been shut all the way to begin with Bently and Olivia began to just walk inside there house! We're like "No no stop! Come back!" Hahaha! We pulled you out just as the owner of the home came walking up to the door! It was a little awkward to be standing there with their door wide open! Haha! Luckily it was someone we kinda knew! It was hilarious! You two are going to be partners in crime! I can see it already!

Love,
Mom