A Much Needed Update

This week has been a whirlwind. I'm not exactly sure how, but every minute of every day just seemed to fill right up. I've been working on this post for about six days - I'm finally getting around to finishing! Warning: it's a loooong post. :)

I wanted to share a few more photos of Livie and a few things she's been up to lately. I don't think I've posted an update on her for awhile.

She was having a lot of fun smiling for me to take photos. I loved it!

She's currently teething. Just a couple weeks ago she had four teeth pop in within days of each other. And then this week we discovered that she has two top back teeth coming in. It sure looks painful. She's been clingy and wanting to be held all the time. That's pretty weird for me because she doesn't usually have the patience to just be held. Well, she actually doesn't just want to be held. She wants to be held while she wiggles and spins and climbs all over. Whew. It's a little exhausting.{Update: those two teeth just broke through the gums. Yea!}

She found a new use for the silverware holder in the dishwasher.

She's also been into everything. If there's a drawer that's closed, she has to open it and pull everything out. She figured out how to open closet doors and enjoys reorganizing everything in the closets. Did you leave a file of papers within reach? Oops. Good luck figuring out how everything goes back together {I just did this with two files - bah!}. Have something with buttons? She'll push 'em. Food, books, papers, toys, dolls, cans, dishes all belong on the floor as far as she's concerned. All of this mischievous adventurous display of spirit is a relatively recent development.

Here we were at Temple Square looking at the lights. As soon as she saw my camera she gave me this cheesy smile.

She is playing peek-a-boo. :)

She is quite fearless. As soon as she decided that she could go up and down stairs, there's no stopping her. I don't even have to remind her to go down on her belly anymore. She just does it. A couple of weeks ago we were at a church building with some family and Liv was playing on the stage with all the other kids. She soon decided she needed more running room and walked over to the edge of the stage, turned around, plopped on her belly and promptly tried to "climb down" just like she would climb down the stairs. She wasn't afraid at all.

She wanted to try on one of my rings. But of course, once she tried one of them on, she had to have all three.

She's such a fast learner! She knows how to unlock my iPhone and open apps. We did not teach her this. I had to pass code protect my phone from my toddler.  She's picking up on signs pretty quickly now. She signs please, thank you, apple, banana, eat, milk, and dog. Every animal she sees is dog and if she wants anything to drink she signs milk. We're working on getting the right signs down. She knows the signs for mommy and daddy but she won't use them. She's also pretty resilient. She constantly falls down and bumps into things {unfortunately she inherited my uncanny ability to run into walls - she seems to have gotten all the strangest parts of me} but never lets it stop her and rarely cries over it. If she does cry, it usually only lasts a few seconds and then she's back to playing.

She thought the bucket would make a good chair.

She loves our banana chair. I used to babysit a little girl who was afraid of it because it was always tipping backward. Livie loves that. She giggles and giggles and does it on purpose. She'll run over to it, climb on and promptly stand up with her feet positioned just perfectly so she can rock while she stands. I haven't been able to capture that on camera, but I did get a few pictures of her enjoying some lounge time.

I love this cheesy smile!

I didn't even ask her to cooperate for pictures. She just saw I was holding my camera and smiled away.

I love this girl!

She's a big tease. She adores teasing Dan or I in any way possible. She'll hold something out to us as if she is going to give it to us but then just as we go to take it she pulls it away and goes running, while she giggles that she got us again. The only problem with this is when she does to it other kids. They don't usually get the joke.

Climbing onto the banana chair.

Gloves are a lot of fun.

She loves her daddy. It is so much fun to see how excited she gets when Dan comes home from work. She will run to him with the biggest smile on her face. She usually gives him a hug or two {and this is big for her - she's not really a hugger/cuddler} and tries to help take his coat off. She loves her daddy.

She struck this pose all by herself.

We've been trying to be better about giving her choices. We'll ask her what she wants to eat between two options or who she wants to sing her a bedtime song. It's fun to watch her choose. Sometimes she can't decide {not surprising that indecisiveness would be a trait she'd inherit from us} but usually she knows who it is she wants to sing to her and gets so excited when that person sings to her.

This girl is stubborn and independent to the core. If she wants to do something, she does not want help. This is usually the cause of many a tantrum because she wants to brush her teeth/use her fork/put on her socks/whatever without any help. However, she struggles to do those things without help so I try to assist. This is almost always a bad idea. She also will not do things on command. If I ask her to say momma or dada, she never will. {She doesn't really say any words at all, actually.} She is getting better about signing what she wants, though.

This was the first time we tried the "french ponies" in her hair. Not perfect but I loved it so much I keep doing it.

She's been such a sport about letting me experiment with her hair a little. We've only tried one basic new thing, but I really like it. She makes it pretty cute. :)

Golly, we really love this little girl. :D