I’m sad: Olivia has such a great memory and can recall names that I give her toys and her imaginary friends that I have long forgotten. And she remembers them with ease. Names like “Tooth-o” for the rubber whale. I can’t even remember naming him. I fear that these names will someday fade into the past and we’ll both forget them as we get older. Soooo, here’s some names I don’t want to forget:
Tootho
Chewie
Mookie
Roary
Ring-Rong
Snow
Smile-co
Blorgensday
(more to come as I remember them)….
There are songs that I play often in the car. It didn’t dawn on me how much Olivia listens to them too. She can sing “Under the Waterfall” by James. She’s also often heard saying that she’s “Off to find the hero of the day”. And she somehow will use this in context. “Where you going Olivia?” “I’m off to find the Hero of the day!” (spoken matter-of-factly). Her music collection that she keeps in her head is vast and can be recalled at any moment.
She is non-stop singing and this bodes well. We’ve got her in a music class now and if her enthusiasm is any indication, we’re in for some fun recitals and auditions down the road.
Christien, meanwhile, has been figuring out how to crawl. He’s been working at it for well over a month now. Although it can be quite frustrating to have such a squirmy kid, it is exciting to have been seeing him rolling around and working his way across the floor for almost two months now. He hasn’t figured out the jolly jumper yet which leads to a workout on the arms since the substitute is to bounce him ourselves. It’s also been three months since we’ve been assisting him in his walking. I can’t believe he’s been trying to walk since he was 3 months old. As Sonia says: It’s like holding a puppy over water….the instincts kick in and they try doing the dog-paddle while still in your hands. When holding Christien above the floor, he immediately starts pumping his legs as if walking and has been doing this since very early on. And when his feet touch the ground he’s off to the races. And loving it. This is going to be a very mobile kid in contrast to the observant Olivia who early on was content to sit and figure things out.
Of course, OG is now also highly energetic. Which I think can account for Christien’s quick physical development. My friend Ian has 2 kids close in age and he told me the other day that his second one rapidly developed thanks to the older sister.
If it weren’t for Olivia, I don’t think Christien would have as many ants in his pants. She has as much influence, if not more, on the development of this child as we do.