Progress and conversation

Well, it's after 4 p.m. and my child is still napping. We have a local theme park (rides, games, food, waterpark, etc) for which we have season tickets, and it makes a great way to keep Olivia happy and active before naptime. Except today we ran into some other season-pass-holding friends of ours and ended up staying longer than expected. Nap didn't start until 2:45, so I'll let her sleep a little longer.

I think we'll be spending most of tomorrow at the park again. I spent the first part of naptime putting poison on the grass inside the playset area...just one more step in the preparation-for-playground thing we have going here. As soon as the grass dies, we can cover it with weed blanket and put in the pea gravel. But in the meantime, I have to keep the toddler away from the poisoned area. And since we are expecting several consecutive days of sun and warmth, this may be a problem.

I'll be SOOO happy when this playground project is complete.

In other news, Olivia is fully conversational at 18 months old. At times, she is just a little mimic, and she will seriously repeat anything you say. "Appreciate it, Gamma!" But she also has the ability to make requests and reply intelligently in conversation.

Example: We were watching TV this morning, and one of the characters had popcorn. She turns to me and says, "Cop-orn?" (Her word for popcorn.) Yes, that is popcorn. "I want it." Not right now, sweetie. "Lib-ee-ah want it." (She always calls herself by name if her first request is refused...just so no one is confused about her request.)

And we were at the park this morning. Olivia says, "Ride the sea horsies?" "Get some ice keem?" "Ride the fishies?" "Again?"

It's kind of nice to have a kid who can tell me what she wants. All my friends with not-so-vocal toddlers tell me I'm lucky. I think they are right. Except when she drops her cup on the ground and says, "Dang it!"

We have to be very, very careful about what we say.