Olivia

In one way, Olivia is a lot like Alex....she likes to talk. She has energy but not as much as Alex. She instead is extremely good at entertaining herself with her vivid imaginiation and can stay focused on one thing for quite a long time. Being at home with just Olivia is a really easy job because she will entertain herself and doesnt' have to go to the bathroom very often which helps me because I often forget to remind them to go! Since Ben and I started taking road trips together several years ago I have often referred to the "Krausman Bladder of Steel"; which refers to my bladder and my ability to drink all sorts of liquids and not have to go to the bathroom for a very long time. Olivia may not look like me but she has definitely inherited the "Krausman Bladder of Steel"!

Although she likes to talk like Alex it is a whole different kind of talking. She doesn't peg you with questions like Alex and she isn't always thinking about food. Instead, she is thinking about why things are, making comparisons from one thing to another, and really trying to formulate her own thoughts and opinions about things while trying to learn and soak it all up. She amazes me sometimes with some of the conversations I have with her or that others have with her. Sometimes I really wonder if she is really just about to turn 3. She has had a lot of curiosity about her brother's "man parts" that she doesn't have. She has tried to hold "her's" to go to the bathroom only to realize she didn't have one. She tries to push "it" doewn like Alex does when he goes to the bathroom. And now she has brought it to a whole new level learning why she uses toiler paper and Alex doesn't when they go to the bathroom. In fact, here is a conversation she had with my dad when he was in town:

Olivia: "Papa, do you use toilet paper?"
Papa: "Yes"
Olivia: "Dudley doesn't because he has a penis. You use toilet paper, so you don't have a penis?"
Papa: "No, I do have a penis, and I don't use toilet paper."

Blows my mind that she has put that all together and make sense out of it. I think my dad never expected to have that kind of conversation with his 2 year old granddaughter. When she is in a good mood, she can be such a funny little girl.

Olivia's speech has always been next to perfect....unless she is mumbling (which does happen from time to time). I have never had any problem understanding a single word that she says. She enunciates so well with every word that she says. Although she initially had trouble with her "v"'s and pronounces them like a "b" instead. But we have figured out that she can say "v" but just likes to be called "Olibia". But her speech has always been so good that we sometimes ask her to translate what Alex is saying and a lot of times she is very successful.

She has recently started making up her own songs. It is so adorable. Out of nowhere she will start singing a song about anything whether it be the new bookcase we got or something else in the house. I often will ask her where she learned the song and she replies "just me". It is very sweet. She is also my big helper. She loves to be included in anything that we do and is always looking for ways to help us out. She has started to bring her stool in the kitchen and help me when I am cooking or baking. I sure this is something the continues to enjoy as she gets older as well, as it is always nice to have a partner in the kitchen.


And my once bald little beauty has turned into a little girl with a whole lot of hair (okay she still doesn't have a LOT of hair, but it is long).She got her first hair cut shortly after we moved to Kentucky. She had been watching Alex get hair cuts for about a year and would always say "boys get hair cuts, girls wear pretties in their hair". That is always how we explained it to her. But in August, we finally figured she had enough hair and it made sense to get her hair trimmed to even it out. Here are a few snap shots of her first hair cutting experience:

BEFORE:
AFTER:
She doesn't get her hair cut every time Alex does, but whens he does she loves sitting in the little cars watching Dora.

And there isn't anyone else in this world that she cares more about then her twin brother Alex. I think she will be keeping a close eye on him for many years to come! In fact, we have always said that once in school we will split them up into different classrooms because if in the same class we see Olivia doing Alex's homework for him and he having absolutely no problem with that situation. And sure enough in their preschool class earlier this year, the teacher accidentally sat Olivia next to Alex during art (the teacher makes an effort to split them up since she is a twin as well), and when the teacher looked over she found Olivia doing Alex's art project for him while he was chatting away with his buddy next to him.

Olivia may always be trying to figure everything out and outsmart us, but she is one very loving and caring little girl who loves to laugh and she shows us every day as she plays mommy to her baby dolls!