The Morse Family: 16 Month's

Each passing month gets more and more fun and a little more challenging. You have to be much more diligent about what you do and say around her because she copies every thing. She is such a sponge.

Olivia is a very accident prone toddler and Mommy really doesn't like this. I thought little girls were supposed to be dainty and delicate. Nope not Olivia she falls more then I ever thought was possible and right this minute she has a bruise on the right side of her forehead from hitting the coffee table and one on her left cheek from where she fell in the bathtub and hit her face. We don't go very long between the bruises either when one goes away another one appears. Then there are the numerous times where she has busted her mouth and made herself bleed. Yup, that's a lot of fun, as she is crying wide mouthed into your shoulder. She has scrapes on the tops of her toes where she drags them on the ground while walking and bruises on her little legs from who knows what. We can know climb on the sofa, coffee table (which has now been removed from the room again), railings, chairs, and anything else. She flings herself all over the sofa and our bed; pretty much making me insane.

How much worse does this get if the new baby is a boy? Am I going to spend time in the hospital for anxiety attacks? I hope this phase goes quickly, for my sanity and to keep her face without damage a little while longer.

Check out her little bruise on her cheek.

Let's talk about sister's vocabulary, I can't even keep track of how many words she can say anymore. But we are way up there past the 30 -50 words she is supposed to be at. We even pulled out our 'Baby's First..." flash cards, I bought every kind they had (they are amazing). Can you believe they have counting but not the alphabet? Weird! But I digress, she loves them, and can pretty much tell you what is on the card and if it's an animal what they do. The other morning as we were getting ready to head home from the condo, she was hiding on the one side of the bed listening (and pooping cause that's how we do it, in private) to ChooChoo Soul. Genvieve was signing about the 'blue zoo train' and all of a sudden I hear Olivia singing "blue zoo" right along with her. Oh my gosh she put two words together (even if she was just coping the lady)!!! That's huge at least to us!

We have been working on manners as well and she has caught on to the 'Thank You' and will say it properly most of the time without being told. The 'Please' has been a little harder. She will say it if you tell her but hasn't said it on her own yet. Olivia just learned how to say 'Your Welcome' so it's next on the list.

Touchdown!!!

Her newest 'trick' that Daddy taught her!

She learned a new animal in honor of her once favorite food the chicken. While she was eating dinner one night I asked her what a chicken does and she just looked at me. So I bent my arms in and bucked like a chicken. Ever since she does it on command and we all get a little joy out of this.

Our Animal Noises:

Dog                                  Cat                                       Monkey                         Cow
Frog                                  Fish                                     Elephant                        Bird
Chicken                           Crab                                     Duck                              Tiger

This month our little picky eater has turned into a garbage can, everything she can eat she will. If she sees you with food she makes a bee line straight to you and either stands at your legs or crawls in your lap. Then all you hear is, "bite!". We went through a phase where she was loving chicken and would eat it all the time, but it would take her so long to chew it up. Now if you give her chicken she will either put it in her mouth and chew it 2-3 times then give it back to you (yea yummy), or not take it at all. I guess her little mouth gets tired, since we only have 5 teeth to chew with). The great thing for us is that she eats whatever we eat for each meal, it makes life so much easier. I don't have to make a bunch of different things just so she will eat.

Foods We Love:

Pasta                              Bananas                     Zucchini                       Cantaloupe
Bread                             Cheerios                    Tomatoes                      Eggs
Green Beans                  Lemons                     Salad                             Macaroni and Cheese
Couscous                       Limes                        Mum Mum's                 Turkey
Apples                           Oranges                     Strawberries                  Cheese
Raisins                          Animal Crackers        Waffles                         Soup
Cheetos                         Grahm Crackers         Potatoes                        Peas
Grapes                           Meatballs                   Cucumbers